Today Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Economic Director Gary Cohn held a briefing to outline the tax proposal of President Trump. The overall plan is essentially the same as the plan he proposed in the campaign with some slight modifications on rates etc.

The biggest structural change is political and regional in the current proposal because the rates are lowered, but deductions are removed – including deductions for state and local taxes. People who live in states/municipalities with income taxes, and who earn enough to carry a tax liability, would see their ability to deduct those state taxes removed.

Because of the UniParty nature of congress; and specifically because special interest lobbyists will write the final tax plan (if one ever surfaces) CTH is not going to spend much time in the analytics of this. Personally I highly doubt there will EVER be a comprehensive tax reform package even created; the UniParty [lobbyists/Big Club] will not allow their control over taxation to be diminished.

Tax reform is a noisy issue sure to fill lots of media stories, but the end result will be no action. If a legislative bill is ever created we’ll discuss then. More than likely we will see small, individual tax bills targeting specific aspects of current tax policy.

Here’s two articles explaining the possibilities against the backdrop of this proposal:

What’s hilarious is that they do the same thing in the game industry. You saw a HUGE spike in paid shills (likely hired by M$) that mucked up the gaming forums during the time of the Wii/PS3/360. They only did this with the consoles and M$ is notorious for trying to bluff all the time to cover up for crappy products. They didn’t have a handheld so you hardly saw the same level of shilling and flaming with those boards with the PSP and DS.

If you are familiar with large construction projects, very little money is needed at the beginning. At the start it is all design, planning, permitting, and a few prototypes if needed.

So yes Trump can still move the wall project along now and is moving the wall project along. That has not stopped. However he will need money in the budget for next year that comes due this fall. Also money may come from drug money but that process will need to be tested and setup.

So he can pass in the wall money now and use that leverage for other things.
1) They were planning on blaming the gov shutdown on the Wall.
2) He can still veto the budget if it has money for Obamacare. They are paying the Obamacare subsidies currently pending the legal case resolution.

Border security seems to be a lot better. now. By various stats, illegal entry is down 65-90% already with no more wall. Just enforcing the laws.

Here we go again! The “Big Club” will stop it. Just like they would stop TPP. Just like they would stop Common Core (which went by the waste side today). Just like they would stop NAFTA being renegotiated (the previous thread shows that our President is a step ahead and will invoke the termination clause which congress can’t stop). Just like they would push for amnesty for all illegals (that will never ever happen while our President is in office). That wall will have to have it last brick (cinder block) layed before even considering an immigration bill for DACA. In the meantime he will not only have gotten rid of the criminals, but he will be working his way through item # 3 which are those that illegally used public assistance (welfare, medicaid, IRS). By that time, the majority will self deport.

Call me a fool but the fact that not a single penny will go towards the Obamacare subsidies, it will all be but dead. Folks will have a nice shiny card with no one to accept it. I would be completely shocked if by the end of May the revised AHCA won’t be signed into law by our President. I could go on but I think I have made my point. The Big Club has fu….ked with the wrong LION!

The entire HFC and the Heritage Foundation are on board with the Macarter amendment. There is a really good chance it will be brought to the floor next week for a vote. Congressman Meadow’s says that the majority of Obamacare will be gone by the end of May.

Sharon,
Sundance responded to me a few days ago on one of his articles about Trumps Tax Agenda. I asked whether he thought Trump then not wanting ObamaCare done if turning focus to taxes. He said using Obamacare talk as leverage for tax plan and there is No Healthcare Plan!

BUT, I think we will repeal and replace with the same system we had before Ocare.
Which sucked. But it is much better than Ocare. Which corroborate SD statements
Business will be much happier under the old system, but the prices will not go down.
Ocare is Monster legislation, fully supported by the the Uni party.
We need to chip away at this, because repeal alone will be felt by the healthcare consumer. It will gain more support, while created momentum to go after the prize.
Cross state lines and torte reform have never been law. Along with all the no bid deals with the medicine hardware and drug suppliers, who will lose big when this happens.
Innovation and consumers will benefit.
This is war against a lot of rich companies with buildings full of lawyers.
It will take,”We the People” to push this through.
This take take 10 new Trump supporting Senators elected in 2018.

dbobway I totally agree with your assessment. The 3 phases made absolute sense to me. Seems we are getting much more done in phase 1 than we initially thought. Tom Price will take care of phase 2. Phase 3 will require 60 votes in the senate. Our President may attach the Cummings pharmaceutical plan to get Dems to cross over.

Lets get the first step done so that I don’t have to hear about Obamacare being the pinnacle success for his failed 8 years.

Oh, flep! You certainly have a way with words – one might think you have a direct phone line to President Trump – even if you did not – you definitely could run his re-election campaign with ease – the problem is – his list of accomplishments will be so long – we won’t be able to fit them on 8.5 X 11 handouts or even billboards – anyway – knowing you – you will figure out how to do it – 🙂

The thing I find fascinating is that people tend to overlook the fact that President Trump, and many in his cabinet, ARE members of the big club and they know everything about everyone that is in it. In my opinion, most of the big club members are stupid people who lucked into or inherited their money, e.g. Zuckerburg, Bloomberg, Bezos etc. who are promoting parasitic behavior that will ultimately destroy the host; that’s We the People. President Trump and his chosen associates are not stupid and realize that destroying We the People is not good for the USA or even the world. They have joined together to deworm the big club to stop destruction of the host. President Trump is a genius and I’m confident that in 4 years he will have accomplished most of his major goals. His next 4 year term will be even more amazing on the level of the Renaissance.

FL, You should pick different names for people who “lucked into or inherited their money.” No matter how much Zuckerberg, Bloomberg and Bezos may or may not have stored up or inherited or whatever, the businesses they founded and the stock thereunto attached have made them 100s of times richer than they were when they started out.

These guys did all the work at the beginning – the original thinking, the planning, the sweeping and cleaning, the pitches to venture funders…. so please find another villain.

Hmmmm…..and yet all of them do ENGAGE IN PARASITIC BEHAVIOR ! Therefore, the name given describes them perfectly. They use their vast wealth and influence to push (manipulate) for open borders, globalism, balkanization of nations, all which benefit them in terms of power and money but to the detriment of the citizens of the sovereign nations.

What they are trying unsuccessfully to F* with is the plans of the Lion of Judah, although they don’t know that yet. Because they don’t understand the nature of the wall they are pounding their heads against, they keep coming back for more and flaming out spectacularly.

I believe the things we are seeing transpire are a reflection of what is happening in the unseen spiritual world, where a great harvest of souls is taking shape. All astute analysis, doubts and cynicism aside, if the tax reform package is part of His plan so that America is equipped to turn back to its old ways and then spread the Gospel worldwide, it will come to pass. The Goliaths in the land are irrelevant.

The compromise is set up very simply and elegantly: Deep Blue States keep their State/Local income tax deduction and we get an American First Tax reform with three tax brackets 12%,25%, and 35%, elimination of marriage tax penalty, and deductions for charity, home interest, and family creation while businesses get 15% tax rate. It’s going to happen!

I can’t believe that state and local taxes are even tax deductible!! What an utterly ridiculous concept – TAXES are TAX DEDUCTIBLE???

So the federal government is basically subsidizing all of the blue states who overtax their population. That needs to be eliminated immediately.

I do not understand Sundance’s comment that nothing will happen, however. Then what is the point of all this? How will Trump truly change taxes? How will we get this economy going? We’re talking about a bill that MIGHT pass in the House and that’s not even counting what the Gobbler might do.

President Trump is doing literally anything in his power to help the nation. Congress is doing nothing besides CRA’s, which is a small help.

I don’t know how, but I know Trump has a plan to get his stuff through Congress. Or he might be setting the whole thing up for 2018 and banking/hoping on a political slaughterhouse for the Dems. All I know is that I trust in Trump. God is with him.

the whole premise is that exactly. Basically if you remove the deduction it eliminates the double dipping these states are allowed to do.. because all of a sudden the citizens of those states now pay the full local and national tax. Citizens will be very angry and many will move to states without income taxes at that point.

Its always funny to me when states claim (especially high tax ones which tend to be blue) that they dont get as much tax money back as they send to feds. if you include the money they get directly by having high income taxes the outcome changes… they wouldnt be able to have these high income taxes if the citizenry had no deductions

Yes, it’s a federal passthrough to the Deep Blue States. That’s why the deal is there to be made. High tax states like NY and California make up much of the Federal Budget including Social Security and Medicare. Most of the financial capitals of the country (San Fran, NYC, DC) have this deduction.

At best, U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been exposed. At least, we now know they don’t care about us.
I get the feeling there is something bigger brewing, a bigger picture we haven’t figure out what President Trump is putting together. It is what many of Treepers here keep saying-the LONG-game, hidden just out of sight.

We just need to stay alert and watch. Pray and get proactive whenever the President needs it. And keep track of members of Uni party/Deep State.
Stay the course.
Full Speed ahead. MAGA

I like it. When people in states with higher tax rates can deduct those tax payments from their federal tax returns, two things happen. One, everyone else is subsidizing the high tax rates in those states.
Two, it removes some of the pressure that those states legislatures would normally feel for having such high tax rates.
I believe that with the deductions removed, state tax rates will be competitive again. Each state is free to set their own rates, but the rest of the country is no longer going to pay for it.

You might be surprised by the actual data. States with higher income/property taxes, generally bluer states, tend to be the states that receive a smaller share of the federal expenditures back compared to what was sent. There are many studies that show this. Here’s just one that makes for interesting reading.

while thats the case you arent including the money the states get to keep by having higher tax rates. In other words we arent counting the funds the state gets to raise by having the rest of the country cover these high income taxes through the deduction subsidy. the deduction if accounted for in real terms would make that report change

Be sure to check out exactly what programs and subsidies they’re counting.

I see people from California and New York claim all the time how much they’re subsidizing us poor hicks out in the boonies. Highly-industrialized/urbanized states likely do get less back in some areas – education, healthcare, transportation funds coming from fed.gov, etc.. What I’m betting these studies are never counting is how much more is coming back to those states for food stamps, welfare, SSI/Disability, Pensions (Employee and Veterans), Medicare/Medicaid compared to smaller and rural states who by the lower population and cost of living, alone, are getting back far less from the Feds.

That’s the study I want to see, especially for California.
Total tax and fee payments to Feds vs. Total disbursements back from Feds.

I’m tired of seeing arrogant progressives from Cali claim that Silicon Valley, San Fran, and L.A. are supporting the entire country and getting back nothing in return, and that if they did get back all they’re entitled to then CA wouldn’t have such a black hole in their budget.

I know it’s all lies, damn lies, and statistics but they love to pull out an article from a leftist rag and throw it around like gospel so they can sucker punch all the freeloading white trash in flyover country they’d like to see vanish and replaced with hipsters, yuppies and Valley Girls.

Bottom line: Will Warren Buffet, George Soros & other super rich like them be adversely affected by this tax reform? Probably not. As Cohn & Mnuchin emphasize, its about creating jobs (hopefully decent paying) & growing the economy, not screwing the super rich.

The cycle goes like this. “They”, the fed/wall street/CoC- “Big Club” allow the President to create an environment that creates more jobs, more “wealth”, and it goes on for a while nicely… and then “They” decide there are enough trillions to be taken again and voila… manufactured economic crisis appears. And then, those trillions “magically” disappear while we the peasants suffer. Seriously, the super rich never “get screwed”.

As SD stated already, uniparty will not allow their control over taxation to be diminished. Even though they know it is literally and truly a scam and that they are through duplicity denying the peasants a legitimate chance in the pursuit of happiness (property).

Actuality isn’t always a happy thing, but it is actuality and should be dealt with accordingly.
The Founders fought for liberty over much much less that we are putting up with.

Sundance is correct. The uniparty only responds when recession makes it difficult for incumbents to win re-election. Since, no danger signs are on the horizon they will be content to let President Trump improve the economy incrementally like he has been doing. The Congress will be like a boat anchor for the Trump agenda.

Terrific innovative thinking.
Of course, not a chance it will get through Congress. Best not waste too much time on it.
Hilariously Congress will probably do confected hysteria over the resultant extra current account deficit forward….as if the $22 trillion they already allow to run doesn’t exist.

Terrific innovative thinking.
Of course, not a chance it will get through Congress. Best not waste too much time on it.
Hilariously Congress will probably do confected hysteria over the resultant extra current account deficit forward….as if the $22 trillion they already allow to run doesn’t exist.

I have read all comments so far on this, I just don’t trust the rhino’s at all. If they get anything done, It will really surprise me. I trust our president to try, he can’t do it alone. We have to vote alot of these swamp critters out!!! The 2018 and 2020 elections are so important.

We need to start looking for President Trump-supporting candidates to replace those Swampy Slime now/soon. 2018 elections is 19 months away. Finding and prepping the candidates takes time. Where is SteveInCO and Martin to do the countdown?

The home building industry might well be the major collateral damage. Still, the US must (?) be the only country on earth that allows interest deductibility for personal housing.
How many overseas bases does the US maintain? Over 200 comes to mind.
Spending is the secret Don.

Switzerland does. I have a friend there who could pay off his loan tomorrow, but he keeps renewing it to get the interest deductions. I got nowhere arguing that he was still paying interest he wouldn’t have to pay if he didn’t have the loan. There is a cool deal though – you can deduct the cost of maintaining and improving your home. Cool, eh? This explains why most residential property is very well maintained everywhere in the country..

Mnuchin said mortgage interest and charitablecontributions would still be deductible.

They are doubling the standard deduction, so many people may end up just using that rather than itemizing.

I think people should be happy that he is attempting something that hasn’t been done since the 80’s. Also, if this is passed, it will be very hard for anyone to roll it back, as rolling it back would mean adding back in all sorts of things, none good for the average person.

My father is at zero tax liability because of his home care deductions and gets everything back. I wonder if he will have to pay state and local now? I’m not a tax person and this isn’t my area, I just do his deductions and give it to his accountant.

Remember that The Federal Reserve Bank and the Income Tax were passed by incredibly wealthy men who had just made tons of money from the Industrial Revolution and banking, and, who after making promises and wheeling and dealing, said few would ever have to pay income taxes (and not many citizens knew about the privately-held Fed until much later). Frankly, we should go back to tariffs and consumption (sales) taxes.

Does anybody else live in a State where you cannot itemize deductions on your State return like Michigan?
It’s a sneaky way of the State getting a higher effective tax rate. So, in Michigan we have a 4.25% tax rate, but because I cannot use my itemized deductions my effective tax rate is about 7.2% at the State level. The effective rate is your total tax divided by your taxable income by the way.
Any other States pullin that trickery?

Nothing legislative will be done that is of consequence until Ryan/McConnel are replaced with un-ashamed America First representatives and the Filibuster is removed.

No this will not be easy and I think I hope pray Trump is not fooled but just letting Ryan/McConnel show everyone their inability/unwillingness to actually do walk the talk. I am praying that he is just waiting a year to then transition to naming, blaming, slamming, putting them in the cross fire box with the Dems for a full attack in the primary/midterm.